Businesses urged to take advantage of nine million Australians using social media

Australian businesses must begin marketing through social media in order to reach the nine million Australians now interacting through online networks, a new Nielsen report has revealed.

But the report comes as separate figures from analytics firm Barracuda Networks reveal the number of users on social networking giant Twitter grew by just 0.15% in December 2009, well down from its high of 20% in April, suggesting the service might be starting to lose its popularity.

The Nielsen report has found 78% of internet users sent or shared a photograph within the last year, while 74% shared or sent a link. The largest increases in usage were posts on Twitter, wiki articles and engaging with companies.

About 73% of Australian internet users read a wiki within the last year, up from 61% in 2008 and 37% in 2007. But in good news for businesses, fewer than 40% are now interacting with businesses and brands through networks.

The biggest tool for this interaction is market leader Facebook, with 75% of Australian users reporting to have visited the site. About 59% have a Facebook profile, with the average time spent on the site within any given month 8:19 hours – seven hours above rival YouTube.

Melanie Ingrew, research director for Nielsen’s online business, says businesses clearly have a solid opportunity to engage with potential customers through social networking – about 86% of internet users say they are looking to fellow users for information about products, services and brands.

“We have seen a big increase in the number of online Australians who have interacted with brands and companies via social networking. Most of them are young. But we are also seeing people becoming “fans” of these companies as well, which is a strong trend.”

“We also asked people for the first time whether they had done something as a result of interacting with a brand or company. The majority of people are now heading to a company’s website to do more research, or are going to search engines – and businesses need to be prepared for that.”

Ingrew also says businesses should definitely be marketing on Facebook, which has “clearly demonstrated itself to be the winning platform”.

“Facebook has certainly gained the loyalty of users in terms of social networking. But in regards to products as a whole they are also heading to forums such as Vogue and Whirlpool – these are strong platforms which support consumer decision-making.”

The Whirlpool forums are known for having many corporate representatives as members, including iiNet managing director Michael Malone, who regularly posts and enter discussions with other users.

Another massive trend is the rise of smartphone-based social networking. About 43% of online Australians now own a smartphone, with 26% of social networkers participating over mobile sites. About 66% of mobile social networkers are under 35 years of age, with Facebook the most popular site accessed via mobiles at 92%.

However, figures within the Nielsen and Barracuda Networks reports indicate Twitter’s dominance of the online sector may be waning. The Barracuda figures show accounts deleted by month on the site grew from 3.36% in April 2009 to 12.03% in October.

And while the Nielsen figures show Twitter’s audience grew by 400% in 2009, with 14% of users following businesses or organisations on the site and 50% visiting the site daily on mobiles, the Barracuda figures show user growth slowed to 0.15% in December.

While Ingrew admits Twitter did record a drop in unique browsers within the last quarter of 2009, she says this could be accounted for by a take-up in mobile usage and still recommends businesses market using the service.

“Over the entire year of 2009, Australians got on board with Twitter and certainly started to trial the services. But on the flipside, we saw some drop off in the last three months as people might visit in a particular month but not return.”

“However, these figures show PC usage and don’t account for mobiles. Perhaps what we are seeing is that Twitter users may access using a PC one month and then switch to mobile. But Twitter is growing, the interest levels are high, and businesses should absolutely be using it to market.”